The results

 All done up!  

Aren't they so handsome.

Now just stop growing! 

St. Patrick's Day

 The imagination of a 5 year old can't be beat.  His class was fully prepared to disappoint those nettlesome Leprechauns.  With no success they showed up to class and ravaged the place.  Many hours were spent making a paper train hanging from the door and beautifully decorated pot's of Gold complete with rainbow.  After ransacking the class room those pesky Leprechaun's did a number on our house.  Hopefully they washed after using the toilet.  M was so exited for the day to arrive and talked about those "What do you call them again mom" Leprechauns for a good week ahead of time.  He was very worried and wanted to call Grandma and warn her of them.  

M even sported his four-leaf clover hat at the store that night.  

Happily singing the song he learned about Leprechauns.

 Next year we may even try to catch one. 

 I hear they are tricky little fellows.

Aquarium or Grocery Store

 If you guessed Aquarium, you guessed wrong.  

Don't think bullfrog will ever be a part of my menu planning.

 or crab, if this actually is a crab.

 Or turtle. To each his own.

 Another surprise of the day to find out these turtles were alive. 

Poor little things.  C wanted to bring one home as a pet.

Another adventure at the grocery store.

Making a mess..

     There have been pros and cons to homeschooling C.  He has been such a trooper the past 6 weeks.  Since there was no more room in the school that J and M were going to we thought it would be good to home school C until we could get him into school with the other kids.  

Well only time will tell how your plans work out and this plan was well thought out, but wasn't the best solution to the situation at hand.  We have decided to put him into school. 

A different school than the other kids.  It is a great place with a great program to learn Mandarin.  We are excited for him and he is so excited.  

     R babe has loved having a brother home during the day to entertain him.  

C is such a softie when it comes to him.  He keeps telling him in his cute voice that he only uses with R babe how much He is going to miss being with him during the day. 

     Next time we play with this amount of flour it will be done outside.  The flour somehow spread throughout the house and was such a mess to clean up.  

It didn't help that R babe threw it at C. 

Fabric Market

There is a market here for everything.  The kids market, fake market and fabric market to name a few.  We had heard all about this market that you can go, get measured, pick your fabric, style of clothing and there you have it a custom made outfit.  We thought it would be fun to get all the boys and Dad matching suits .  We haven't had a family picture since R babe was 6 weeks and we may finally have it done.  For some reason J didn't want to get a matching dress with me;) I can't imagine why.  It was fun looking around and on our way out we bought some fresh mango's from a street vendor and had McDonald's for lunch.  We will see how they all turn out.

Dumplings

 The kids have been enjoying the cuisine here.  

Our cute Ayi Kate has been more than helpful, cooking, cleaning and doing a bit of shopping for us.

She has helped us in getting settled.  She is an amazing cook and taught the boys and I how to make dumplings.  Yummy!

 

My Birthday

Can I just brag about my children for 2 seconds.  We really had a lot on our plate this past week.  We have been doing some shopping getting ready to move out of the service apartment into our new home.  R has been working crazy hours from home.  I am talking 10-12 hour days.  Moving day was suppose to be on my birthday.  Some how we were able to move the day before.  I wasn't expecting any sort of celebration on my 35th birthday due to the fact we were moving and R has been so busy with work.  To my surprise I woke up on the big day to this "Happy B Day sign"  It really brought me to tears that J would be so thoughtful  and get up early to wish me a Happy Birthday and surprise me.  What a cutie.  Then a few nights before she got all the boys together and had them make me earrings.  Since there was no wrapping paper they got post it notes and stuck them together making a little bag to put them in.  I was so touched at how thoughtful they were in making my birthday so special.

The afternoon R took me to lunch at a Brazilian BBQ and our Ayi (maid, nanny) cooked some yummy Chinese food.  Then a friend from the ward totally went out of her way and brought me cookies and flowers.  She also e-mailed all the ladies in the ward that it was my birthday.  I received a flood of text messages wishing me a Happy Birthday.  Not to mention the calls and messages from family. What a great day it ended up being. For dessert we went to a local bakery and picked out some pastries and cakes and gobbled them all up.  

I guess what I am trying to say is what I thought was going to be just an ordinary day ended up being a very special one.  Thanks to thoughtful people. 

Any ideas?

Our toys here are limited to a set of  
bey blades, a few hot wheels cars and 3 balls.  We have been searching for other ways to entertain a 2 year old.  This did the trick and it kept him occupied for hours.  We will be getting out the flour again soon.  Surprisingly enough he kept the area pretty clean. 

Our first visitors

Justin and Rick came in from Westech bringing goodies and gifts from home.  We have not been gone long but we really enjoyed the bit of home they brought to us.  It is so much fun having company and spending time with and getting to know people.  They were nice enough to go out to dinner with us Saturday night, head to church the next morning and then come over for Sunday lunch.  I know how exhausting traveling can be so they were great to come and spend time with us.  The kids wondered when they would be coming back.  It is fun to have company from the Westech family.  Keep on sending them!  We will be accepting any visitors at this time;)  Just a week or so later Ralph brought all sorts of goodies for us.  We appreciate all the love and support we get from Westech and the people that work there.  We feel so blessed to be here!

Big Sister

 I have to say R babe has each one of us wrapped around his little finger.  He gets away with so much more than any of the other kids. R babe loves his older siblings.   When he needs a little snuggle and I am not around he won't hesitate to crawl up on J's lap and relax or fall asleep.  She loves the quiet time spent with him.  She will sit there with him until he wakes up.  Oh so sweet. 

 M taking a little snooze.  

We stayed up way too late the night before,

waiting for Dad to get home from a trip and then spending some time with him.

Hey soul sister

Today C was looking at Dad's calculator.  It is one of those fancy calculators that only engineers know how to use.  That calculator came into his life before I even did.  He has had it a long time.  C knows all that and commented about how old it was and then said, "So this is how big calculators were in the olden days".


Since we moved to China we are trying some new things out to make life here a little easier.  One of those new things is having a Driver.  It is a little weird, but is so so nice not having to worry about how to drive in a new country.  C is a pretty shy little guy.  We have been spending a lot of time together  since he is currently being home schooled.  We were headed to the store and a familiar song come on the radio.  I told him if he belted out the rest of the song I would give him 20 Quay.  He asked how many dollars that was, I said three.  He said that is not enough so I bet him 50 Quay.   He said how much is that, I told him about $8 dollars.  Next thing I knew he was singing as loud as he could muster  "Hey soul sister" and finished out the song. Well in between the laughter.  I laughed so hard I thought I was going to cry.  All night long he kept mentioning how embarassing it was.  Even if it was, just me, him and the Driver.  What a funny little guy.

Yu Yuan Gardens

 Our Adventure for the day was Yu Yuan Gardens.  We didn't go for the gardens but went to see the town and shops that surrounded them.  We love to look around at all the different architecture and fun nick nacks.  On our way there we saw this motorcycle.  If you look close you can see the cab on the side.  I don't think I have seen one of these since watching M*A*S*H. 

 

 Amongst the shops we saw a DQ and Starbucks Coffee.  Not something I would have expected to see.

 This little guy showing off his pearly whites to the dragon behind him.

 The chinese people are very resourceful.  

Why not use cabbage as decor and then eat it. 

Very Clever if I do say so myself

 After walking through the tourist trap.  

We got down to the nitty gritty and found what we were really looking for. 

What we later found out was called the Junknataria. (I don't think that name is quite right but that is the jist of it.)  This is where I purchased my first Granny Cart.  I know I know I am now the owner of those ever so handy carts. It really has been a great purchase.  No more breaking my back trying to hall the 9 liters of milk back to the taxi.  Along with the 5lbs of rice and what ever else I bought at the grocery store.  Poor C is usually with me at the grocery store and I have him carry his weight in food.  By the time we try and wrangle R babe and get to the taxi we have broken a sweat and need a nap.  

 This is the cute little girl whose mother I bought the granny cart from.  This is just a great example of how all the little kids are dressed around here.  We have been chewed out by multiple people at how R babe is not dressed properly.  I really don't blame them.  It is cold especially if you don't live in a home with heat. 

We had a fun day of seeing new sights, bargaining a bit, being chased down by people who want us to buy there stuff, making friends with the locals, going potty in the squatting toilets (that is a story for another day),  people taking pictures of our blondies, buying and trying Chinese sweets and last but not least chasing down the taxi's and then falling asleep on the way home after a long and fun day.